Writings, Ramblings, and Reflections

Book Review: Author’s Quick Guide to Editing

Introduction:

When I started reading this book, I had just started one of my final edits for a novel and I picked up this one so I could hopefully find some tips. I’m glad I did, too.

Clarity: 1/1

Kristen Eckstein did a very good job making her book short, easy to read, and straight to the point. I had not problem following along with the book. Each point was explained well and concisely.

Usability: .75/1

I’m not sure how many points to give this one. Much of what I read I already knew, especially regarding formatting (at the end of the book), but I also found a few things I didn’t know, so in that regard it was very helpful and useful. This would be a great book for someone who is just starting out in the writing and publishing world.

Readability: 1/1

The book was formatted well, the words easy to read, and the sentences well put together. I loved how she set the book up to be easy to follow.

Overall writing quality: 1/1

I didn’t come across a single, glaring error. Which is good since this is a book on editing. Although, the author also said she wrote the book in one day, edited it the next, and published it a day or two later, so there was the possibility of errors.

That being said, it was well written and all explanations were good.

Un-put-down-ability: .5/1

As I mentioned earlier, the last part of this book was about formatting. A lot of the things she said in there were things I knew, so I actually put the book down and didn’t pick it up for another week or more until I decided I really needed to actually finish the book. Other than that little fact, this book is short and could easily be read in about an hour.

Conclusion: 4.25/5

All authors should read this book even if they don’t think they need to. If for nothing else, she explains what each type of editor is out there and has a list of resources to find some of those types of editors. And it’s only $0.99 on Amazon.